The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-04-20
Cranks.

There are cranks and cranks. The most
harmless of them are elements of mischief
through the contagious influences they exert
upon weak-minded persons and the oppor-
tunities their eccentricities create for shelter
ing premeditated rascality under the guise
of innocent deluson. They are apt to pre-
sent themselves in the garb of reformers,
desiring only to remedy actual or imaginary
defects in moral, social religious or political
conditions. However honest some of these
may be, they seldom if ever accomplish
good results, but as general rule succeed
only in inaugurating confusion and aggra-
Vatlng the very wrongs they have set out to
cure. The political prohibitonists and self
styled civil service reformers on the COM
petitive examination plan afford examples
of that sort of cranks. From the compare
lively mild endeavors which characterize
them, transition is easy though gradual to
other forms of restless agitation, under the
pretenSe of regenerating society in its
various phases of development. Crankness
is usually the outgrowth of propensity in
herent in some mems minds to NEEDLE with
and attempt to regulate the affairs of other
men. OF course women are included. The
itching desire for domination in regard to
all things is so irresistible in certain cases
that it can hardly be repressed. 1t crops
out everywhere, in private as well as in
public. The individual who thinks himself
more capable of managing the domestic
concerns and the business enterprises of his
neighbor than the latter is himself may
always be found. He knows better than any
body else what ought to be done and what
left undone, and feels irritated and aggrieved
when his interference is rejected. His wis
dom is so great and his perceptions are so
accurate and all-pervading, according to the
estimate he puts upon them, that it aston
ishes him to be repulsed. He can't under
stand why his intrusion is not welcomed
and his advice implicitly followed, After
two or three failures in this direction the
Dusybody begins to brood over the mortitica-
tons he has encountered. He grows morbid
and jaundiced in temper. He enlarges the
scope OF his discomfort and imbibes notion
that - reform is necessary in a great many
respects, with himself as the moving spirit.
In short, he becomes crank, filed with
the idea that 1t is his province to correct,
prevent or punish all divergences from the
theories adopted by him. The particular
form of his idiosyncracy is immaterial. Any
challenge OF IL il, in his view, a crime de-
handing expiation. The crank will brook
no opposition. He and his fellows, if con-
verts have been gained, always consider
themselves authorized to ride rough-shod
over whatever stands in the way of their
purposes, regardless of reason or any con-
sideration affecting general interests, to say
nothing of those involving individuals only.
No rights are so sacred that they may not
be trampled under foot by cranks who have
once got fairly started on the career of re-
form" either with stold Indifference or
under a ferocious impulse of selfshness and
hatred, But when that point has been
reached community at large is justified in
resortng to extreme measures of self
defence. The elements thus developed are
anarchy communism and socialism, each
dovetailing into the others so naturally that
it is impossible to determine where one ends
and the next begins-the three constituting
vicious circle within which every hope OF
| mr. tfak ttaI lxy
Thus crankiness degenerates into crime
which invites the condemnation of all good